Lost Dutchman Blog

Posted By Dutch on January 24, 2010

It started with the Break-in at the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972. Five men broke into the Democratic National Committee’s office to plant wiretaps and listening devices in order to spy on the committee’s activities, in preparation for the upcoming Presidential election (Incumbent Richard M. Nixon vs. George McGovern). The confessions and convictions of these burglars, and the ensuing journalistic investigation by Woodward and Bernstein led to the resignation of President Nixon on August 9, 1974. The political fallout of this dark period in Republican history was the sweeping victory of the Democrats in the 1974-midterm elections and the Presidency by Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Fast Forward to January 2010, Phoenix Arizona. Thirty-eight years after Watergate, someone illegally removed confidential financial records from the Arizona Republican Party Headquarters and submitted them to the Sonoran Weekly Review. The perpetrators remain unknown, but the motive cited by the Gila Courier is retaliation against the Executive Board’s rejection of the Victory 2010 Draft * (submitted by Senator’s McCain and Kyl in executive session on December 30, 2009). More specifically, the object of this retaliation is Randy Pullen, who has long been the target of Senator John McCain for past disagreements. The Victory 2010 Draft called for the creation of a separate account, in an entirely different financial institution, where disbursement of funds (in excess of $5,000) was to be controlled exclusively by representatives from the offices of Senators McCain and Kyl.

To most people, this small scandal is just political infighting between rival factions within the party, merely inside baseball of no consequence to anyone but those involved and their respective camps. Unfortunately, much like the underestimation of the original Watergate break-in, there is much more to this story. Fundamentally, someone authorized the criminal act of stealing financial records from the offices of the Arizona Republican Party. Political disagreement, infighting, even mean, rotten, nasty, and false accusations are accepted, albeit begrudgingly, as part of the political process. However, crossing the line by engaging in criminal activity is unacceptable.

Therefore, just as Woodward and Bernstein became famous for leading their investigation by asking: 1) What did the President know and 2) When did he know it? So must we now ask: 1) What did Senator John McCain know and 2) When did he know it?

Everyone involved with the construction of the Victory 2010 Draft is now suspect. Senator McCain, Senator Kyl, Congressman Jeff Flake, Congressman Trent Franks, the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Congressional Committee, and even Governor Jan Brewer are implicated in criminal action, by association with the authors of this document.

Nixon, Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean have become McCain, Kyl, Flake, Franks, and Brewer.

No doubt, all will deny involvement, but…
Who will be the first to step forward and reveal those who committed this crime?
Who will be the first to step forward and reveal who authorized committing this crime? Who is guilty?
Who will fall on their sword and take the fall?
Who will resign?
Who will be convicted?

Perhaps it is best that Senator McCain was not elected President in 2008, forty years after the election of Richard Nixon. One Nixon in the Republican Party is more than enough. Senator McCain has long ridden his heritage, as son of an admiral, his graduation from Annapolis, and his honor as a war hero, as evidence of his character. This crime undermines all of that in one small, tragic act of ego.

Most supporters of Senator McCain are honest, decent, law-abiding Americans. It is a shame that they have had their loyalty and trust betrayed by these actions.

In 1974, Watergate cost the Republican Party the Presidency; it cost them their reputation. Only an outsider, Ronald Reagan managed to restore some of what was lost. At a time when hubris again has taken control in Washington, how tragic would it be if the only alternative to this hubris, the Republican Party, should be dragged down by scandal?

Of course, not a word of this has appeared in The Arizona Republic. Will the last real journalist, interested in exposing such wrongdoing, please turn out the lights on the way out?

* Victory 2010 Draft courtesy of www.FreedomsPhoenix.com

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Tags: John McCain, randy pullen, victory 2010

Posted By Dutch on December 7, 2009

I’m just now getting around to blogging about Republican Congressman Ron Paul’s visit to Phoenix this week. I went and saw him at ASU on Friday afternoon (12/4/2009). He was two hours late because of bad weather on the east coast delaying takeoff. To sooth the savage Ron Paul Beast followers, we were entertained by a parade of enthusiasts, including former California Congressman, Barry Goldwater, Jr., Jessica Bolitho (President, ASU College Republicans), Jeff Greenspan (State Director of Ron Paul’s 2008 Presidential Campaign), Adam Kokesh (Congressional Candidate from New Mexico’s 3rd District), and ASU Economics’ Professor Stephen Happel.

We were also treated to a brief musical performance by Jordan Page;

he’s kind of a right-wing version of Peter Seeger, but with a voice more like Jim Morrison.

When Congressman Paul finally arrived to speak, the crowd had grown to about 2,000 on Hayden Lawn in the heart of ASU’s campus.

Congressman Paul is making the rounds supporting his new book, “End the Fed.” His support among college-age and 20-somethings around the nation is something to behold. Perhaps all of that liberal-biased, public education isn’t as effective as conservatives believe. On the other hand, my opinion on the matter is that Congressman Paul has simply tapped into the same anti-establishment sentiments so prevalent in the late 1960’s.

Congressman Paul’s primary message is “You can’t trust anyone over 30!” Well, not really, but it is very close to this. Congressman Paul tells us that the Federal Reserve is a secret NON-government organization that is manipulating the US currency (Dollar) on behalf of the largest financial institutions in the country (e.g. Goldman-Sachs, AIG, etc.). He accuses the political leadership of both parties for using the FED to manipulate the national and international economy in order to finance their “interventionist” wars. He calls for the repeal of the 16th Amendment (i.e. eliminating the income tax) and for a return to the Gold standard. While he never mentions the Bermuda Triangle, I believe that he is just as much a kook as those who believe in it.

Congressman Paul speaks in mild mannered tones. This lulls people into thinking that he is reasonable, kind of, like how Al Gore lulls people to sleep during his speeches. You don’t really appreciate exactly how crazy each one sounds because you are too busy fighting to stay awake. It isn’t until much later when you read in black and white exactly what each one said that you realize just how wacked each one really is. For one thing, Congressman Paul is a very poor public speaker. He has few applause lines for someone who has traveled and spoken as far and wide as he has, and what’s worse, he usually steps all over the few applause lines he does have. He is earnest, fervent, and nuts.

By now, most of you who worship the ground upon which Congressman Paul walks must be steaming at my slander, but please understand that I actually like the Congressman. He is one of the few politicians who doesn’t slander other politicians. He doesn’t lie or present different faces and views to different audiences; he says exactly what he believes the same way to everyone wherever he goes. Unfortunately, like most of the truly paranoid, he actually believes what he says, and so doesn’t recognize how genuinely nutty it all sounds and in fact really is!

Auditing the Federal Reserve is a good idea just because they have fought being audited for so long. No Quasi-governmental agency should go without being audited. Best-case examples are FANNIE-MAE and FREDDIE-MAC. The malfeasance and mismanagement of these two agencies underwrote the Real Estate bubble of 2005/2006 that collapsed in 2007 and resulted in the ruination of the Financial Sector in 2008. The Federal Reserve contributed to this mess by their extreme lowering of interest rates AND the prolonged time period by which they allowed them to remain low.

Eliminating the 16th amendment is popular among the far right, and my guess is that it will become even more popular, if Obama, Harry, and Nancy propose raising income taxes as high as they have discussed. However, it still isn’t likely to happen.

Nevertheless, these aren’t the ideas that expose Congressman Paul for being a nut. It’s his extreme libertarianism that reveals him to be completely out of touch with reality.

Case #1: Legalizing Drugs
Most people recognize that the “war on drugs” has been far from successful in eliminating drug abuse, but what the libertarians refuse to acknowledge is how much worse it would be if we didn’t at least try to stop drug trafficking. Somehow, Congressman Paul’s view of history has been distorted into believing that Drug lords, Gangs, violence, and the accompanying social ills would suddenly all go away, if we only legalized drugs. This is complete nonsense! These criminal pushers, bullies, pimps, and violent thugs existed before drug laws were passed. Drugs were just one part of a larger problem of general immoral behavior of gambling and prostitution. All of the wacky claims by the libertarians and extreme liberals that these are victimless crimes has been completely debunked by the evidence of the lives left bankrupt, beaten, addicted, and dead. This isn’t just about legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, it’s about gross stupidity in the face of hundreds of years of social depravity brought about by these behaviors, which once addicted are hardly “voluntary.”

Case #2: Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy
This sounds good on the face of it. Congressman Paul even quotes our founding fathers dictum of avoiding entangling alliances. In theory, most of us are in agreement with these ideals; but reality is a B****! Each specific example to which Congressman Paul points is one where the US either was attacked or answered the call of an ally. One might make an interesting case that Wilson hoodwinked everyone in the 1912 election when he promised he would not enjoin the US in WWI, or that Roosevelt antagonized the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor, but in neither case were we “intervening” in others affairs without entreaty. I’m sure South Koreans are more than glad that we “intervened” on their behalf. Only fellow nutter, Ted Turner, believes that North Korea is a paradise. South Vietnam asked for our aid, we didn’t just hop on planes and show up uninvited. Panama failed to honor their agreement with respect to maintaining the canal. We had every right to protect our interests. Iraq attacked Kuwait. We have strategic interests in that area of the world to protect the flow of oil to us and the rest of our allies in Europe, Australia, Japan, etc. Furthermore, just as the violation of treaty gave us the right to “intervene” in Panama, so did Saddam Hussein’s violation of his “terms of surrender” following Gulf-War I give us the right to intervene in 2003. Do I really need to justify our attack upon Afghanistan? (How long we stay and what our objective should be are open to discussion, but it is ridiculous to characterize this as an act of US “intervention” into other’s affairs or entangling alliances). Finally, all of the alliances during the “Cold War,” such as NATO, Iran’s Shah, Somoza in Latin America, even Batista in Cuba can be rationally justified in the face of Soviet hegemony. The alternative was worse. (If you don’t believe me, then ask yourself whether or not there would have ever been a “Cuban Missile Crisis” had JFK succeeded in the “Bay of Pigs” attack of overthrowing Fidel Castro.)

Congressman Paul is by all measures, an honest, intelligent, and well-meaning public servant. However, he has embraced views, much like the John Birch Society, that devolve into conspiracy paranoia and undermine credibility in those areas where he can make a solid case for investigation.

Our “libertarian” brothers-in-arms have passion and dedication in fighting against Statist oppression, but until they abandon their fondness for fighting mythical conspiracies, like Don Quixote and his dragons, they will simply end up bitter, disillusioned and completely ineffective.

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Tags: Ron Paul

Posted By Dutch on November 4, 2009

NY 23 was the race! And the Tea Party Candidate Lost!

Does this mean that the Tea Party movement is a failure? If you listen to the likes of David Frum or David Brooks or even the Republican intelligentsia, the answer is Yes! But as Mark Twain said, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!”

Still, we would be wise to examine the outcome of yesterday’s election for lessons we can learn:

Winning Matters!
Coming close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Politics has no “moral” victories. In order for the Tea Party movement to be successful, it must demonstrate that it can win elections outright, especially in cases like NY District 23. Playing spoiler will earn the ire of the Republican Party Leaders, but it will not earn their respect, and it certainly will not change their thinking about backing moderates over conservatives. Only absolute victory in the General election over Liberal Democrats and/or moderate/liberal Republicans will meet the minimum threshold necessary to produce real change. Victories in New Jersey and Virginia were victories for the Republican Party Machine, not the Tea Party movement.

Preparation and Organization Matter
Get in early. We got into the NY 23 race too late. Point #1: Scozzafava’s selection should never have happened. Point #2: Once Scozzafava was selected, Hoffman’s candidacy should have been backed early with organized ground troops and fundraising. Had Hoffman had the same level of financial and public support one month earlier that he had in the last two weeks, he would have won this election. The Tea Party movement must learn, adopt, and become experts in the ground game of politics, just like the two major political parties practice, or we will never succeed.

Determination Matters
If we throw in the towel after this setback, we will never succeed. That is what the opposition within the upper ranks of the Republican party believes will happen. They think we will simply all go home with our tails between our legs and give up. We owe it to one another to do otherwise. If we build upon this foundation, then come next year we can upend their plans in the Primaries and in the General election. If we don’t succeed in the Primary, then we must be willing to back independent candidates in the General election. That way is much harder, which is why we need to focus on winning primary battles, starting now. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, “it will be a long, hard slog.”

Are we ready?

If not now, when?

If not us, who?

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Posted By Dutch on October 12, 2009

Don’t buy the lie that attacks on ObamaCare equate to a defense of our current system. We all have experienced denial of care by Insurance carriers, either directly within our family, or indirectly to a friend or a colleague.

The question is: Who gave these Insurance carriers the Power to decide what care we can receive? How did they come by such monopolistic control of our Health Care market? (I use the term “monopolistic” in the broadest sense, acknowledging that it is more oligopolistic than truly mono-polistic in nature.)

The answer is that our government created the current system.

There is no Free Market in health care, neither in the US, nor anywhere else in the World. Health Care is one of the most highly taxed, subsidized, and regulated services in the world.

Health Care Taxation
Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors are among the highest taxed businesses in America. American corporate taxes are 2nd Highest in the world, second only to Japan. (U.S. States Lead the World in High Corporate Taxes) Primary Care Physicians fall within the 3rd highest tax bracket (28%) for individual income tax payers. This bracket and those above are responsible for paying 80% of all Federal Tax Revenue collected from individual taxpayers. (Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data and The Rich Pay More Taxes: Top 20 Percent Pay Record Share of Income Taxes)

Health Care Subsidies
Health Care is subsidized via Medicare, Medicaid, and even by tax exemption through employers. These unfair subsidies raise costs and prevent those without the benefit of employer sponsored plans or incomes too high for Medicaid, or ages too young for Medicare to pay exorbitant prices for care they do receive. Each of these subsidized systems underwrites and therefore hides the true cost of the care received. By under-charging members of these groups, demand is over-stimulated, leading to over-charging for those who are not members of these groups, especially the un-insured.

Health Care Regulations
Finally, both Federal and State mandates force Insurance Carriers to cover expenses far beyond catastrophic medical costs, diluting the cost-reducing benefit that pooling risk among thousands of clients inherently provides. Every sniffle, scratch, ache and pain is compounded into the system, each with an elevated cost for defensive medical practices to protect the care provider from expensive law-suits.

Blackmailing Drug Companies
Too often we hear the criticism that Global Free Trade is hurting American jobs, but the hidden truth is that foreign subsidies and price controls are the true source of our job losses and also the cause of the higher drug prices we in the US pay. It isn’t “Big Pharma”, but rather “Big Government Price Controls” in foreign countries that inflate drug prices in our country.

Our supposed allies (Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, etc.) threaten American drug companies who don’t cave in to their price demands with refusal to honor International patent law. Either American companies sell at the price they want, or they threaten to reverse engineer and manufacture and sell the new drug to their citizens without paying the American company that developed the drug. Consequently, the American company either acquiesces to the blackmail demands (and receives at least some compensation for their new drug), or they forego ALL compensation from that foreign market. (And if the foreign manufacturer chooses to sell outside of their home market, then they undercut the American company’s rightful sales even more!)

Even foreign drug companies, already under direct price controls within their home country, only succeed in recouping their development costs by selling their products in our Free Market. This effectively puts the US consumer in the position of subsidizing the development of all new drugs for the entire world. (Isn’t it enough that we already subsidize our allies militarily?) If the US institutes price controls into our Health Care Market, just who will pay for developing new drugs in the future? (Pharmaceutical Price Controls Abroad: An Unfair Trade Policy)

No market this heavily taxed, subsidized, and regulated and with as many unfair trade practices impinging on it domestically should ever be confused with a Free Market!

If you were trying to create the most awful system in the world for delivering health care to a population, one would be hard pressed to pick a worse one…except for the new one that the President and Congress are proposing now. It is so bad, that if it weren’t for the subsidies that our nation currently provides, via our free market, the rest of the world, which has already imposed this system on their populations, would be in even worse shape than they are now. And believe me, they are in terrible shape! (The Welfare State Made Britain Poor)

The burden that their health care systems place upon them completely excludes their ability to fund their own military. (Defense cuts reduce Britain’s value as an ally) Their acquiescence in the face of international terrorism is a direct consequence of this fact. The welfare state, especially the cost of healthcare, has bankrupted them.

So don’t let those Democrats and Liberals whom you know get away with making the false accusation that if you oppose the President’s plan, you are defending the awful system we have now. Tell them you’re just smart enough to know that when you find yourself stuck in the muck, the real solution is to get (more…)

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Posted By Dutch on August 14, 2009

Bush is Hitler! Bush is a Fascist! Obama is a Nazi! Brittany Spears is a Nazi!

Invoking Hitler, fascist, and Nazi in Blog entries, signs, and placards trivializes the Holocaust. No rational argument is made, merely ad hominem attacks. This is unfortunate. While the Holocaust remains the single greatest evil perpetrated in modern times, Nazi Germany would be judged as unconscionably evil, even if there had been no holocaust.

To limit criticism of Nazi Germany exclusively to the Holocaust conversely trivializes all of the other evils committed. Murdering the infirm, the mentally retarded, and the aged occurred well before Hitler invoked his “Final Solution.” Hitler pursued Aryan “purity” in the form of vegetarianism, Teutonic pantheism, smoking bans, eugenic breeding and sterilization. The subjugation of Liberty in the name of Socialism’s vision of a better world infested all of Europe, including Mussolini’s Italy, and Stalin’s USSR. Supporters of each of these movements existed within the US, as well, from the late 1800’s through the 1930’s.

Failure to recognize the encroachment on Liberty as an evil portends history repeating itself. “Never again!” should apply to ALL of the evils perpetrated by the Nazi’s, communists, and socialists, not only the Holocaust.

Rationing of Healthcare by impersonal, government boards or panels is no less an evil than having it done by Insurance company bean counters. At least within a free market, there is hope of changing plans, changing jobs, or finding another Insurance company. Once the Government takes over, it will undercut and drive out of the market virtually ALL of the private insurance providers. What recourse will we have then?

Greater Choice equals lower cost. Lower cost equals greater coverage. Government regulation ALWAYS increases costs and reduces coverage. Government subsidies squeeze out private companies, again driving up costs in the private sector. Those on the fringe, not covered by government care, lose private coverage due to the increased cost caused by the government subsidy. Thus, each new expansion in government coverage creates a new, fringe group that becomes the basis for justifying further expansion of the government program. (Kind of like the creeping expansion of the Sahara desert.)

This continues until the number of people on the fringe, without coverage reaches a crisis point. Thus, the safety net put in place to protect a few, swells until it breaks. (Ultimately, the government program creates more victims than existed when it started.) Some claim that 47 million Americans remain uninsured. Regardless of the accuracy of this number, Government policies that tax, regulate, and selectively subsidize healthcare have created this gap. The only solution is to remove excessive government taxation, regulation, AND subsidization.

Private charities provide better balance of safety net and costs than do government plans. Not until we restore liberty and pare back government to its proper, Constitutional role will we solve the problems of over-priced, Health care coverage and a host of other social ills exacerbated by government interference.

Successfully persuading our fellow citizens of this truth requires simple direct comparisons with those examples that illustrate what works and what does not. References to Nazi Germany, in this context, elevate our discussion, not detract from it.

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Posted By Dutch on August 11, 2009

On the first day of my summer vacation, I went downtown to fight the bailouts, then I went back to work to pay taxes for all the deadbeat bankers we are bailing out. On the second day of my summer vacation, I went downtown to collect my unemployment check (I was laid off for being late the day before.)

I waited in line while the attendants went on their cigarette break…I waited in line while the attendants went out for lunch; I was starting to feel hungry. When I finally reached the attendant, I was told to fill out an application, then go back to the end of the line. After one week to qualify, I would then be able to collect my unemployment benefits ($225/week).

In Arizona, summers are HOT! Most of us, spend every weekend out of town, at the lake, in the mountains, or in San Diego. I’m sure it’s the same for most families. School is out, and Americans take vacation. Even during a downturn, most families find a little money to go on some small trip to visit family in another city or state, or go camping, etc. No one wants to sit around the house all summer long.

You know that. I know that. AND…Congress knows that. That is why they scheduled ObamaCare for summer time. Because we weren’t supposed to be paying attention! Congress was supposed to be able to sneak this through without anyone even noticing, let alone objecting.

Thanks to all of you who sacrificed your summer vacation to MOB our treacherous, sneaky, low-down, dirty, rotten, good-for-nothing bums we call Congressmen and Senators.

You didn’t let them off the hook!

You held their feet to the fire.

And they fled, running for the Hill (Capital Hill, that is).

When they come back in September,

MOB them again…and again…and again!

We will not go quietly into that good night!

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Posted By Dutch on July 11, 2009

Attacks from the Democrats are expected. Attacks from the news media have become boringly trite in their consistency. However, why must we continue to eat our own? The Mark Sanford’s and John English’s represent just another pair of false hopes for the future of the Republican Party. As they fizzle under the weight of their own deflated egos, one potential candidate without blemish is left to twist in the wind without rescue.

It’s not really that Sarah Palin is destined to fulfill all of our Republican hopes and dreams; it’s just that she is so gifted as a speaker and fund raiser; it seems a shame to let her potential value to the party go to waste. And yet that is exactly what we see happening before our very eyes!

The incumbents feel threatened. Because they ARE being threatened. The grass roots of the party really don’t like them. These incumbents embarrassed themselves these past 9 years with their prolifigate spending. They made small noises about fighting the Democrats’ spending then joined whole-hog in voting for Hank Paulson’s bail out. Their opposition during the current session is so anemic and empty of principle that even the friendly media has resorted to calling them the “Party of NO!” Their credibility is shot.

However, they dredge up great reserves of energy for attacking anyone who dares question their stance…on anything! The issues don’t matter, spending, immigration, judges, just be good little Dobees and support our reelection. (After all, that’s all that precinct committeemen and low-level district chairs are supposed to do. Just do as you are told, and whatever you do, never question or challenge our stance on ANYTHING!)

What makes Sarah Palin stand out in this mess is the obvious neglect by the Party. She’s Cinderella, who while she clearly outshines the ugly step-sisters, remains uninvited to the ball by those who fear her.

Who are the newest “bones” being thrown to conservatives as proof of the incumbents’ born-again sincerity of genuinely embracing “conservative” positions? Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor. Aren’t they nice young boys! Why, we’ll prop them up in front and let them lead the way. Everyone will be so taken by these fine young gentlemen; they won’t even notice we haven’t changed at all! Don’t be fooled. Neither of these posers is likely to ever be given real authority within the Party legislative leadership. However, by the time Paul and Eric figure this out, they will be swept aside as just another couple of circus clowns whose 15 seconds of political fame have passed.

The real issue facing the Republican Party is the unbridled power of the incumbents. McCain-Feingold, “Clean Elections Laws”, and lawsuit abuse have congealed into a toxic mixture of incumbent monopoly. Money has become more than just the mother’s milk of politics, it has become the primary barrier of entry for anyone who rocks the boat of incumbent leadership. As others have written, Ronald Reagan could not get elected under today’s election laws. Those who financed his campaign for Governor and later helped lead his campaign for the Presidency would be so hamstrung by the new rules of campaign finance reform he would never survive the Primary.

But then again, that is the point of it all, isn’t it? It’s not about the general election at all! The districts have been so gerrymandered in all 50 states, that only one of the party’s candidates genuinely has a chance of winning. Once the “Party” candidate has won the primary, the outcome is predetermined, much like professional wrastlin’. (So what happened in 1994 and 2006? The exception that proves the rule! Only the most outrageous of circumstances can upset the monopoly of power established by incumbency. Hillarycare in 1994 and the perception of the Iraq war going badly in 2006, plus a little spice of corruption swept the party out of power into power.)

Governorships, Senate seats, and any other positions of real power are rarely left to the whims of individual ambition, but carefully orchestrated by who is funded, and more importantly, who is not!

Case in point is Sarah Palin… again. She is not wealthy. She was the exception that proves the rule, upsetting the Republican establishment in Alaska. They still haven’t forgiven her. However, that’s no reason to become alarmed, simply sue her out of office. $125K per year is entirely inadequate to defend against frivolous lawsuits. No one but those of means may succeed, or must bow to the demands of those who finance or “arrange” financing for their campaign. Five dollar contributions won’t cut it for offices beyond Wasilla Mayor or the state legislature. While the Democrat Party Allies did the suing, did the Republican Party come to her defense? Did they help arrange donations to her Legal Defense Fund? No, they let her twist in the wind. She’s a wildcat. She’s not a “Team” player.

No, the game is rigged and the incumbent riggers have shown their disdain for all who even so much as question them, let alone challenge them for election. Here in Arizona, John McCain roused his supporters to upset the Party Election within his own small, state legislative district, then followed suit for the County, and the State Leadership, a replay of the 2007 State Party Leadership battle.

No one challenged John McCain’s Senate seat. They simply questioned his stance on illegal immigration, then McCain-Feingold, followed by the “Gang of Fourteen.” Well, you get the picture.

Furthermore, for some inside baseball into the Arizona Republican Party, McCain deliberately directed funding away from the County and State party offices during his presidential election to deny them from participating in his election, then blamed them for their poor support. Money for local McCain election offices came directly from his campaign through his staff’s own hand-picked intermediaries, not the State or Maricopa County Party leadership. Unfortunately, too many of the Arizona Party faithful have drunk McCain’s slanderous Kool-Aid about County and State Party Leadership failing to support him, for anyone but a few party insiders to realize just how petty and vindictive McCain really was about all of this.

While McCain’s actions certainly never placed Arizona’s electoral votes at risk, they undermined the State Party’s efforts to efficiently combine McCain Presidential funds and locally donated funds to assist in electing State officers. Still, all in all, the Party did quite well, increasing its number in both the State House and Senate (Thanks to Randy Pullen and his dedicated staff). Too bad the same couldn’t be said for David Schweikert’s candidacy in CD5, let alone Randy Graf.

The RNC participated equally in such subterfuge in Arizona, funding one Republican candidate over another in the CD8 primary (The RNC NEVER becomes involved in Primary elections, but this is the exception that proves the rule, again.) When the RNC’s chosen candidate lost the primary, they withheld funding for the General Election, from Randy Graph, the Primary winner. While withholding those funds may not have caused Randy’s defeat, it certainly didn’t help. No doubt, the RNC was influenced by McCain and Kyl, since Randy was a staunch critic of their immigration stance.

Additionally, “stunt” candidates have been propped up in Arizona Primaries to challenge those who have been critical of our Congressional delegation. Challengers to Russell Pearce and Carl Seel were creatively fronted with financing “arranged” by the Congressional delegation out of spite over criticism for their positions on immigration.

Criticism may be unpleasant for the incumbent to hear, but it isn’t damning. However, the truly vicious way in with incumbents have responded, attacking anyone, even lowly grass-roots Republican Precinct committeemen, demonstrates beyond a doubt just how low they are willing to go to preserve their power of privilege.

It’s not just Arizona, the LA County Republican Chairmanship was also recently challenged and the loser (Robert Vaughn) has launched a legal campaign to overturn the election.

I’m genuinely sorry for airing all of this dirty laundry, but the Republican Party incumbents have engaged in a “scorched earth” policy of attacking anyone that challenges their incumbency. They would rather destroy the party than give up their cushy positions of political aristocracy.

So what do we do?

Well, here’s my two cents worth. Launch challengers in every primary election. Let the incumbents have it with both barrels. Don’t hold back. Don’t give an inch. The consequences are that we may lose the general election to the Democrats, but at least the incumbent will be gone. Only then can we hope to rebuild the Party from the ground up.

It’s sad really. I don’t like my own conclusions. But I haven’t heard any better ideas; and frankly, the incumbents have shown just how nasty they are willing to be in order to keep their jobs.

Let loose the dogs of war!

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Posted By Dutch on June 25, 2009

That seems a more fitting title than “They call the end of my career Maria.”
Gov. Sanford just bit the dust as a presidential hopeful in 2012. This falls on the heels of Senator John Ensign confessing his affair, under threat of blackmail.

In spite of the initial reaction of disappointment concerning these two individuals, there is a silver lining. We have just pared the field of Republican Presidential candidates back by two. Last time, we had eight candidates battling for the nomination. Now, we have reduced that number, thus allowing more opportunity for the remaining candidates to make their case.

One could argue that the large field actually played into Senator McCain’s hand in that he had far greater name recognition and thus was able to prevail over the din of noise created by too much bickering among the lesser-known candidates. Who really cared what Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, or Duncan Hunter said. The media focused only upon the top three (McCain, Romney, Huckabee) and ignored the rest. Should any of these candidates decide to run again in 2012, they may fair much better in a smaller field.

While the MSM sharpens their spears for another conservative hunting expedition, the lack of such vetting towards the Democratic Party actually works to the Republican Party’s favor. When the MSM were the only game in town, they could control the message and protect Democratic candidates from all but the most scurrilous scandals. This is no longer the case. Their most recent attempt, shielding Senator Edwards, became a huge embarrassment, as the tabloid, National Enquirer, not only beat them to the story, it was the only news outlet (including FOX News) to continue with the story for over 9 months.
(Just as an aside, now that analog TV is gone, more people than ever before in rural areas, where standard transmission is weak at best, will turn to satellite TV and have the opportunity to watch FOX News and its entertainer/hosts. Along with satellite TV will come greater Internet access, as well, spreading the news about Obama’s over-reach into their lives via Health Care, Bank Finance, Automobile manufacturing, etc. Independents and Democrats in fly-over country will have greater “balance” in the news they receive.)

The Obama campaign, with help from Democratic operatives, thwarted the ability to vet him properly by going behind the scenes and wiping out his history. We have no samples of his writing, papers, personal history, birth records, college records, SAT scores, grades, anything! It was wiped clean. While it is clearly too late to worry about this with Obama, someone in the Republican party needs to make sure that this never happens again with any future Democratic candidate. (Ask Michael Steele about having his credit card history hacked or Jack Ryan about the “security” of court-sealed child custody records.)

There’s an old expression, “That which does not kill you, makes you stronger.” This is the best hope that we Republicans can take to heart. Democrats cannot withstand such scrutiny. Such scrutiny severely damaged Kerry’s campaign (Swift-boat veterans). It would have hurt Obama’s campaign had the MSM not “white-washed” his few remaining stains (was that racist to say that?), e.g. opposition to “born alive act” in Illinois Legislature, association with domestic terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn, etc.

So, bring it on! Let’s weed out the weak, and only those with genuine character AND presidential credentials will remain. We may not have a Reagan waiting in the wings for 2012, but a well-vetted, conservative candidate may still unseat a Jimmy-Carteresque President presiding over the worst economy in decades. (The details of that prediction, economic collapse, will have to wait for another day.)

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Posted By Dutch on June 23, 2009

I really enjoy the new Snapple ads. They got me to thinking about what else could use better stuff. Say, for instance, the Republican Party. The GOP could use LOTS more better stuff. Now, that doesn’t mean that they have bad stuff. They have some good stuff, but based upon the results from the last two national elections (2006 and 2008); they definitely need better stuff!

The question is: What better stuff?

If you ask conservatives, they will tell you that they need better leaders, since they (conservatives), the base of the party, clearly know what is best and the current leadership is quite obviously not good enough, or they would be winning majorities in the House and Senate.

The moderates of the party would say that we need a better base. After all, it is obviously those knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal, Palin-loving, xenophobes who are dragging down the party. We must become more urbane and cosmopolitan because those are the types of people who are winning elections for the Democrats. Tax cuts, smaller government, Abortion, and same-sex marriage, these are all yesterday’s issues. They won’t win elections among today’s hip, 21st Century electorate.

(Besides, principles aren’t really timeless, especially if they don’t win elections anymore!)

The Democrats accuse the Republican Party of being the party of old, bald, white men. However, that isn’t entirely true. There was one presidential candidate who energized the youth of America not under Obama’s spell: Ron Paul. But he’s a nut! Isn’t he? I can’t say that I agree with everything that Congressman Paul advocates, but he did do more to energize young Republicans than any other candidate, including Sarah Palin (although, she appears to have been the odds-on favorite of all the old, bald, white men in the party.)

Funny thing is that Ron Paul is an old, bald, white man. Maybe it isn’t a cult of personality after all, but his stubborn defense of principles. Imagine that, young people committed to ideas like Liberty, Self-reliance, and a government that minds its own business. After all, this is the generation that in poll after poll repeatedly acknowledges that they don’t expect to see any Social Security money left by the time they retire. Out of the mouths of babes. Perhaps we should be listening to them. Perhaps they have better stuff!

In a recent event with the Scottsdale, Jewish Republicans, Congressman John Shadegg let it slip that he thought it would be better for the party if ALL Republican incumbents stepped aside and let new blood run for office.

Now that sounds like better stuff! Any takers?

While the John McCain’s, Jim Sensenbrenner’s, Mike Pence’s, and other fossils hang on to their coveted offices and leadership roles, the Republican Party is sinking like the Titanic. We hit the iceberg twice. (We didn’t get the message in 2006, so the electorate spanked us again in 2008!)

Hey! All of you old, bald, white guys who FUND the party, maybe you could persuade these incumbents that their time has passed. Maybe if you took the lead in recruiting and funding better stuff in the form of bright, young Republican conservatives, our fortunes would change.

Oh well. I think that sound is my alarm clock ringing. Time to wake up from dreamland and get to work recruiting better stuff.

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Posted By Dutch on May 6, 2009

Colin Power Interview on CNN (YouTube Link)
Nothing embitters an old man more than dreams unrealized. Colin Powell’s time has passed. His best opportunity to run for President was in 1996, and he backed out. Some men seize the day when opportunity knocks; others vacillate with indecision until the opportunity passes them by.
Colin Powell has now come face to face with his miserable failure. As he watches the incompetent boob-in-chief, the first Black man to become President of the United States, embarrass himself daily, he knows how much more superior he would be as President.
Unable to face his own failure to step up when he was virtually handed the nomination on a sliver platter, he channels his anger outward, lashing out at the very people who would have gladly supported him.
Pride will not let him accept responsibility for his own failure. The Right-wing of the Republican Party would have swallowed their pride and leapt for joy at the opportunity to have the first Black U.S. President be a Republican, however moderate he may be. But no matter how many times they held out the chair for him, the General would not sit.
Now, in his retiring years, he grapples with his regrets.
It is Rush Limbaugh that is hurting the Republican Party, he claims. It is Ann Coulter who is driving independents to vote for Democrats. It was Sarah Palin who cost John McCain the election, he accuses.
Like a quarterback who has stayed in the game well past his prime, Colin Powell refuses to accept his own irrelevance. His attacks reignite, however briefly, one last flash of attention from the main stream media.
The old warrior must now slink back to his cave.
Like that breath of fresh air that fills your house when those pesky relatives, who have overstayed their welcome, finally leave, the Republican Party is waving farewell. As one after another of the moderate/liberal Republicans voluntarily leaves the party, the bickering and wailing calls to become a “Big Tent” slowly fade away. No one had to kick them out or drive them away. In the end, their own selfish desire for political success trumped any remaining party loyalty and they have left to join the “winning” team.

All we conservatives can say is “Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out!”

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